The lock and latch on “lockable” glove boxes, consoles, and other storage compartments in automotive vehicles cabins are designed primarily to deter thefts of opportunity from short-term drivers of the vehicle (e.g., valets, car wash workers, etc.) or to prevent family members (e.g., kids, teen drivers) from gaining access to items for which the vehicle owner wishes to control access. The prime assumption is that the person attempting to open the locked compartment will be stopped if they find it to be locked.
Low security locking mechanisms on these types of storage compartments are not sufficiently robust to resist attack from even a mildly motivated and determined thief who is not hesitant to inflict vehicle damage to open the compartment. For example, a glove box can be easily opened with a crowbar, screwdriver, or some other leveraging device that may be used to wedge the door open. Unfortunately, on some vehicles, such as convertible vehicles, this results in a lack of a highly secure location in the cabin to keep valuables when the customer wishes to park the vehicle with the top down. Further, the same would be true of any vehicle that the customer parks with the windows down while storing items of value in the vehicle.
A motion/inclination system could be used to sound an alarm if significant motion is detected. However, the thief could still rapidly gain access to the locked compartment and leave the site before anyone notices or responds to the alarm. Most original equipment manufacturer (OEM) motion detection systems utilize an ultrasonic sensor and Doppler affect monitor to avoid false triggers from fireworks, thunder, and strong side winds on the vehicle. These ultrasonic systems may not function, or sometimes may not even arm, if a window is down since cabin air movement may be detected by the Doppler affect algorithm and may set-off the alarm.
It would be desirable to have a “valuables safe” in the vehicle that is highly secure from attack or would require a large amount of time to “crack.” A valuables safe that does not require significant cost or structural changes to the vehicle to implement could be offered as standard equipment or as a low cost enhancement to an OEM's security system option package. With such a solution, one could still leave a wallet, phone, or other small valuables in the safe with the windows open or the convertible top down.
The above problems and other problems are addressed by this disclosure as summarized below.